Irene's Story

Joy’s sister Irene escaped child marriage a year earlier. Kenya Works hosted an Anti-FGM forum for girls at risk of child marriage and female genital mutilation (FGM), a ritual that signals a girl is ready for marriage.

Kenya Works noted the low number of girls advancing to secondary school from Musenke Primary School, and targeted the region for this forum. In partnership with a boarding school created to help girls escape child marriage and cutting, we sponsored 29 girls from this region to attend the boarding school.

On a school holiday, Irene became aware her father and brothers were planning to offer her for marriage. Kenya Works had trained all the girls to have a safety plan should they feel they were not safe at home. And, so Irene called her social worker and arranged to be transferred to our rescue center Miale ya Tumaini where she now resides while school is out of session.

Irene has learned to use her voice not only for her own safety but for the safety of all girls. In August she joined her Kenya Works mentor, our program coordinator, Caroline Gitau, to tell her story on Kenyan TV. See the three-part series here: